Part Two of this series mostly focuses on Infographics that illustrate the US Education System - but I think there is valuable learning and questions they raise about the UK Education System as well.

Today's infographic is on "The State of Digital Education" (original source)

For me the most interesting facts are:

1) Education is a seven trillion dollar industry. That's 570 times the size of the online advertising market and equal to seven times the global mobile industry - [its no wonder lots of commercial companies are being ing increasing interested in education. For a long time I have maintained that it is one of the only guaranteed markets in challenging economic times].

2) Teachers are embracing online learning tools: 93 percent believe online tools improve performance and 95 percent believe that online tools help to engage students - [I think this is a trend reflected in the Scotland / UK. The big challenge we face though is getting teachers from 'believing' to 'doing' and certainly in Scotland we are still to make that shift].

3) The education community is already adopting new technologies which will work together to result in more effective learning solutions, including game-based learning, learning analytics, cloud computing, personalized learning environments and open content - [we are well on the way to adoption in Scotland. Particularly in Games Based Learning. The other findings are consistent with the 2011 Horizon Report].

Open Textbooks is a new paradigm that is beginning to emerge and is becomeing increasing popular in the US (particularly Califonia I think?). It gives the option for students to print books on demand or download free digital copies at the fraction of the cost of a normal textbook price. As you can imagine there is some oposition - but it is an interenting model.

If your interested in Open Source Books then WikiBooks is not a bad place to start.

2) We need to signpost learners and teachers more to some of the great on-line Open Education learning content that exisits on the web and in places like Apples iTunesU.

3) We need to consider the impact on pedegaogy and learning from the use of resources like Khan Academy (terms like Flipped Classroom are starting to be used more widely but we need to experiment more and evaluate these ideas in practice)

1) When will we see the convergence between laptop/tablet and text book (ans isn't reading or having the information the most important thing?).

2) That 3 out of 4 students say that they wouldn't be able to study without technology BUT only 1 out of 4 uses video podcasts as study materila (I still think that we have a job to do in signposting young people towards the great learning content that is available on the web).

3) That students in the US seem to be useing email, socila meadi and mobile phones to contact teachers reagarsing their learning more than I perceve them to be in the Scotland / UK.

As well as being an advocate for on-line CPD and personal learning I also get invited to a lot of face-to-face CPD Events and have the opportunity to contribute to a lot of events as well. Increasing due to time pressure and other work commitments I have to turn a lot of things down but #EduPIc11 has certainly got my attention. Its taking place in Glasgow on Tuesday 20th September at Oran Mor.

1) What could Scottish Education look like at its very best? (Re-imagining the future)

2) Where are we now? (Reflecting on the present)

3) What could we do to make it better? (Closing the gap)

I like the idea of starting the conversation with “What could Scottish Education look like at its very best?” far to often we focus these discussions on what we could do better? Or What we have done wrong?

I’m also a big believer that “we are where we are” and after the Imagineering around the first question about what could Scottish Education look like I hope that the attendees of #EduPic11 will be willing to have an open and honest discussion about where we ‘actually are’ now?

As well as the topic up for discusion the format of #EDPIc11 is very appealing to me as well. It is different to most traditonal conferences and has been designed to maximize active participation from participants. There will be no keynote speakers or roundtable discussions from ‘education experts’ and everyone regardless status will be on an equal footing with all experiences and thoughts both valued and up for discussion.

Finally, I was delighted to see that Graham Ogilvie (the conference cartoonist) and creator of our successful Internet Safety and Responsible Use Cartoons will also be capturing the event - which means at the end of it we should have a Real Education Picture (EduPic) for people to take away and reflect on.

Anyway, More information about the event on Laurie’s Blog or you can sign up here on the EventBrite Page (tickets go up by £10 on Tuesday - so book fast!)

August 21, 2011

An infographic is a visual representation of a set of data, facts, statistics, and images that often support a point of view. In lots of ways they are not dissimilar to large classroom posters that you often see in classrooms and school corridors.

What ever you think – I think they do have a place in schools and we certainly need to be working with children to make sure that they understand how to decode and interpret inforgraphics. I find some of them quite interesting and they certainly get you thinking about things!

I have previously posted some of my favorite inforgraphics earlier in the year at the end of March. Since then I've been collecting Inforgraphics about education - most of them have been delivered to me by my on-line colleague Tony Shin, who seems to have a really good eye for spotting the best ones.

I’m going to post five that I have bookmarked recently over the next week and they are all mainly about the US Education System but provide some valuable learning for us over on this side of the pond.

To get us started - here is a nice infographic explaining How Google actually works (you might want to click on the picture to make it bigger!) -

August 18, 2011

I posted the Move and Eat film earlier today which have obvious links to geography, place, teaching steriotypes and international education. But the 3 guys who traveled, 38 thousand miles, over 44 days, through 11 countries and 18 flights to create the films also made one more film.

I love it because on the concept. It reminds me that we are all learners and we should regularly challenge ourselves to learn something new.

With most Scottish School back this week (and the rest next week) why don’t you challenge your new classes to learn something new that doesn’t appear in your curriculum. Why don’t you challenge yourself as well? and see if you manage to stick with it over the academic year.

I posted the Move film earlier today which has some obvious links to geography, place and international education. But the 3 guys who traveled, 38 thousand miles, over 44 days, through 11 countries and 18 flights to create the films also made two more.

I think is great as well. The first part is perfect for identifying and talking about stereotypes with a class of learners and the whole film who be perfect to support teaching a unit on the geography of food.

Al Humphreys pointed me towards this video a few weeks ago and I loved it when I watched it at the time. Then via Alan Parkinson Living Geography Blog I noticed a comment pointing towards two other videos by the same guys. They really are beautiful and inspiring pieces of artwork and filmography.

Lots of lesson starter ideas here including trying to identify the places, countries and continents where the shots were filmed. Apparently “3 guys traveled, 38 thousand miles, over 44 days, through 11 countries and 18 flights,” to ctreate the films.

I think it might be quite fun to try and re-create the idea in your school or local area. Anyone up for the challenge?